Weedmaps.com is proud to announce that it has become the Founding Sponsor of the Dispensary Defense Group (DDG), which is an unapologetic advocate for the medical marijuana dispensaries at a time when it is urgently needed.

The Dispensary Defense Group will be headed by Richard Cowan, a former National Director of NORML and a longtime advocate of marijuana law reform. Cowan began the first marijuana blog, MarijuanaNews.com. in 1997, and is author of numerous articles advocating the legalization of marijuana, including the landmark cover article in the late William F. Buckley’s National Review in 1972.

Weedmaps founder Justin Hartfield said, “There are very few people who have more knowledge and experience in this issue. Although there are a number of excellent organizations that support the rights of the patients, we believe that the dispensaries must stand up for their own rights and should have an organization that will speak for them at a time when they are targets of the prohibitionist counterattack.”

The prohibitionists know that they can no longer target the patients directly, but they think that they can still get away with targeting the sources of their medicine, which are being unfairly attacked by those who put their prohibitionist ideology ahead of the welfare of the sick and dying and peace in our communities.

Cowan argues, “We believe that it is important that the dispensaries have a voice in the debate,  because they know better than anyone else what an important role they play in our communities.”

1. The dispensaries provide safe and affordable medicine to those who have no other way of obtaining it. It is simply not possible for most people to “grow their own” medicine, and it is cruel to expect them to do so. The more dispensaries there are, the more choice patients will have.
2. The dispensaries play an important role in reducing hard drug use by depriving “street dealers” of a large portion of the marijuana market. (Marijuana prohibition is the real “gateway” to hard drugs. The Dutch have proven that fact with their cannabis “coffee shop” system which separates the markets for hard and soft drugs.)
3. By offering a much safer alternative, the dispensaries reduce the problem of prescription drug abuse, which has increased greatly over the last few years as the “Drug War” focused on marijuana, not the real problems.
4. The dispensaries provide thousands of jobs at a time when unemployment is soaring, and pay rent for buildings that would otherwise be vacant when real estate is in a serious depression.
5. The dispensaries pay millions in taxes while the cities and the state are cutting back on essential services.
6. The dispensaries reduce total health care costs by providing patients with affordable alternatives to expensive pharmaceuticals.

Richard Cowan
Biographical Data

Date of birth: June 26, 1940. Fort Worth, TX

Education: Bachelor of Arts in Economics: Yale University, 1962

Cowan’s political past is not what most people expect. He was President of the Yale Young Republicans; Chairman of the Party of the Right in the Yale Political Union; and was a Founding member of Young Americans for Freedom; etc. 

Writing and activism:

The December 6, 1972 National Review Cover Article "Why Conservatives Should Support the Legalization of Marijuana" caused a stir. In his book Smoke and Mirrors, Dan Baum said that this article "opened a second front in the War on Drugs." Time Magazine even carried a story about the article. (MarijuanaNews.com was launched on the twenty-fifth anniversary of this article.)

His December 5, 1986 National Review Cover Article: "How the Narcs Created Crack" has been cited in various scholarly journals as the origin of the economics of contraband, "The Iron Law of Prohibition: the harder the enforcement, the harder the drugs."

From August 1992 to August 1995, Cowan was National Director of NORML, The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Cowan has lived in Amsterdam, and is very knowledgeable about the Dutch experience and why the prohibitionists have to lie about it.

Starting in 2000, Cowan also did one of the earliest experiments with live video on Pot-TV.net: The 420 MarijuanaNews. It continued as a prerecorded streaming VBlog until 2005.

Writings on other subjects have appeared in a variety of newspapers and other publications, including the Atlantic Monthly

Television appearances include interviews on numerous news programs, including CNN, and a variety of talk shows.

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Currently: Member NORML Advisory Board

Editor and Publisher, MarijuanaNews.com; Partner: GeneralMarijuana.com and related ventures.